Education tax would help with past cuts

Demoralized Arizona voters will have at least one thing on the November ballot we can feel good about supporting. And of all things, it's a tax.

All that Ann-Eve Pedersen and the organization she runs have to do is collect 179,809 valid signatures by July 5.

"I'm not worried at all about getting the signatures," Pedersen told me. "We had people lined up to sign this thing."

That might seem strange to anyone who doesn't live in Arizona.

I mean, a tax?

Yes.

Pedersen is president of the Arizona Education Parent Network, which has kicked off an initiative drive to make permanent the 1-cent-per-dollar state sales tax that is set to expire next year. Essentially, Pedersen and a group of business and education organizations have decided that they will do what the state Legislature has been unwilling to do.

"The tax supports education," Pedersen said. "Education is an issue that unites people rather than divides them. That's encouraging. That's hopeful. This is a wonderful thing to work on because of that.

"People understand the underlying value of education, not just for the younger generation but for all of us. They see how it affects our economy, our quality of life, and how healthy our state is. I think the citizens of Arizona get that. I trust them. I just know they are going to do the right thing."

Extending the tax would bring nearly $1 billion a year to the state.

But the initiative wouldn't simply hand that money over to the Legislature.

More than half the funds would be set aside for K-12 education. It is meant to protect the education system from future cuts by the Legislature while also giving the state Department of Education the funds needed to acquire the technology that will monitor school performance and student achievement.

"The middle class is getting squeezed, and we want to make sure that our universities and community colleges also are accessible and affordable," Pedersen said.

"So we have a community-college scholarship component in the initiative. And we also are helping to bolster the vocational education programs in the high schools and community colleges. That is something very important to the economy. These are skilled employees. This will help the state on that level. These are good jobs, good careers.

"Eighty percent of the initiative goes to education across the spectrum, including K-12, community colleges, vocational, university and adult education. That's the primary purpose. But there are some other pieces, too."

Some of the money will be used to restore KidsCare funding for children living in poverty, and also to create a Family Stability and Self-Sufficiency Fund to deal with issues like family violence and child care.

"If kids are not healthy they can't go to school and learn," Pedersen said. "And also there is a fund in there for human services, a family-stability fund, child care, hunger, homelessness, all of these things go against learning."

In addition, the tax would provide roughly $100 million a year to fund road and transit projects. The group says this is necessary since the Legislature began taking money from the Highway User Revenue Funds.

"As part of the infrastructure piece we prevent the Legislature from raiding these funds," Pedersen said. "If you are going to have a healthy economy you have to have ongoing projects like this."

In one of the early articles about the initiative, Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs said of Pedersen's group, "They're trying to include a little bit to buy everybody off. A little bit for here, a little bit for there and everywhere."

Pedersen doesn't see it that way.

"There's nothing hidden about this. Nothing concealed," Pedersen said. "People in Arizona will know exactly what they're paying for and know as well as that it can't be altered.

"This could be a game-changer for education in our state. And for economic development. And it's totally up to us. That's the best part. We're giving people the opportunity to vote on this, one way or the other."